REVIEW: The Hidden Words - "Free Thyself From The Fetters Of This World"

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Reviewing a religious record with only a pedestrian
understanding of the religion at hand is a difficult task. Art can often be analyzed through a
personal understanding of a theme – love, nostalgia, or death, for instance – and
even though it’s almost never an exact representation of the artist’s intention, a sense of connection can still be
formed. But what do you do when an
album carries a theme that’s explicitly difficult for you to relate to? Free Thyself From The Fetters Of This
World is that kind of album, and finding that sense of connection will be a
challenge for most listeners, myself concluded.

Let’s start by getting the two big pieces of context out of
the way and then dive into the album itself. First off, The Hidden Words is the first time since The
Unicorns where we have Alden Penner and Jamie Thomas back in the studio making
music together. Even if you’re a
huge fan of The Unicorns, like myself, this is merely background and not
important at all for the listening experience because simply put, The Hidden
Words sounds nothing like The Unicorns, save for Penner’s voice. The second piece of context is The
Hidden Words’ backbone and focus – the Bahá'í faith. The best thing you can do before listening to this album is
to head over to Wikipedia and get a better understanding of the Bahá'í faith (click here)… all right,
you’re back, let’s continue. Oh,
and one more thing: to add to the difficulty in reviewing this record, Penner
slips in and out of English, Spanish, and French throughout the album. So, I’m backed against a wall, with a
practically inaccessible record made by some of the musicians I love most. The only honest way for me to approach
reviewing this record is to outline my personal reaction to listening to it,
and share my thoughts on how the various sounds over the ten track record
create a tapestry of moods that can make even the most anti-religious person
feel something spiritual.

In spite of the record’s challenging subject matter, Free
Thyself From The Fetters Of This World is an album framed by simplicity and
strong songwriting. Gone are the
robust explosions of electronics and shattering percussion featured on Penner’s
last two projects. Instead, we have an emphasis on minimalism. Most songs highlight a lightly strummed
acoustic guitar, “suitcase” drums (from what I gather, drumming with brushes on
an actual suitcase), and vocals that have no large production moments to hide
behind. This structure suits
Penner and The Hidden Words well because his vocals, no matter the
accompaniment, always spill over with emotion and drive the songs from start to
finish.

The standouts on the album are definitely the back-to-back
tracks “Belleza” and “Dis”. Like
all great songs, both rise above the simple label of sound and cement
themselves as pieces of music that can affect a listener outside the
listen. They’re wrought with
introspection and as I stated before, have a spiritual grace that transcends
whatever you believe concerning religion or faith. There is something bigger at work in these two songs outside
of simply being pieces of sound strung together.

The album features a great deal of
playfulness to help lighten up the darker moments. The opening track “Paradise Of The Placeless” is a warm
invitation into the album with its quickly strummed guitar, handclaps, and
bright vocals. The title track
plays a lot like a circle sing-along, with quick bursts of strings that
interrupt a Mississippi John Hurt-esque bouncy guitar and large group vocals. Touches like these freshen up an album
that is mainly rooted in softer, more subtle moments that demand the listener
collapse into sounds that are simplistic, yet rich in depth.

In
high school, my best friend and his family were of the Bahá'í faith, and I will
always remember that while I didn’t research the totality of their religion, it
always struck me as a faith that emphasized beauty, peacefulness, and the
notion that the world is connected, one being. This might be my own projection, but if those are indeed the
takeaways of the religion, then this album from The Hidden Words does the
Bahá'í faith spiritual justice. Free
Thyself From The Fetters Of This World is a beautiful collection of songs
wrapped in a state of peacefulness that, with its use of multiple languages and
world melodies, makes every aspect of life around the world feel connected as
one. This is one of the toughest
reviews I’ve had to write because of a lack of understanding concerning the
theme as I stated before, but the music is extremely well crafted to point that
even if you don’t have an expert understanding of the Bahá'í faith, the album
still allows you to relate and feel connected to the emotion and spirituality
of The Hidden Words.